Mid-tier financial institutions will be leading the way in technology spending over the next couple years, according to a well-known think firm.

IDC Financial Insights expects North American financial institution technology spending to increase to $57 billion this year and continue a growth rate of about 3.1% a year through 2015.

Federal budget issues and unforeseen economic difficulties could rein back technology spending, of course, said Jeanne Capachin, research vice president for IDC Financial Insights in Framingham, Mass.

“Financial institutions have long 'wish lists' of technology projects, but they continue to be constrained by tight revenues and the need to ensure all compliance and security issues are addressed,” Capachin added in a report titled “2013 Bankers as Buyers” by William Mills Agency in Atlanta.

Economic and revenue declines could put some technology investments on hold, the report said, but compliance and security investments would likely remain untouched.

The report broke institutions down into four categories by size and said those in the second tier – $1 billion to $10 billion in assets – would show the highest growth rate in IT spend: 5.64% this year up to 6.48% in 2015.

Institutions of $100 million or less would spend about $767 million this year on IT, compared with $5.2 billion total for those between $100 million and $1 billion in assets; $10.6 billion for those of $1billion to $10 billion in assets, and $40.5 billion for those larger than $10 billion, IDC Financial Insights said.